What about that congressman who thought that having too many military personnel in Guam would cause the island to tip over?

When I used to work at the librarian, a librarian told us this story through tears of laughter. She had a customer come up to her *totally* infuriated. "I've been asking for help for ten minutes and nobody has come to help me! I'm almost out of computer time!" The librarian was puzzled, since she'd been right at the desk the whole time and the woman hadn't come up to the desk at all. "I was right here and I didn't see you get up. How were you asking for help?" "I was pushing that F1 key over and over and nobody came!" I would totally think this was an urban legend except that the librarian told me right after it happened, so I guess some people really do make that mistake!

But most of my exchanges that make my brain hurt are with my 4-year-old. She has a talent for asking the kind of questions that force me to answer, "Uh... I don't know. I will have to ask Papa/look that up and get back to you." Good thing I'm married to an engineer.

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Emily is 9 years old! 1/07Jenny is 7 years old! 10/08Charlotte is 5 years old! 8/10Megan is 3 years old! 10/12Lydia is 1 year old! 12/14

I'm bipolar, and when I was checking into the hospital during a manic episode, encountered a check-in nurse/assistant/tech who had never heard the term "delusions of grandeur." I had to spell it for her.

ETA that she worked ON the psych ward. And yes, I mentioned the incident to the head nurse.

My husband once was convinced that dividing numbers by 2 gave the same result as the root of that number. It took me 10 minutes to convince him that it was hogwash...In the end I juat asked him 'look, you told me you have bad grades for math and dropped it as soon as possible, while I got stellar grades and had a lot of lessons in it. Could you just take my word for it?'

Not sure if this precisely counts, but I once had a man flag me down to tell me my tire was almost flat. The only issue I had was that I was driving into a car repair shop as he was telling me (hence my reason for being there ).

I had an ex who insisted moon phases were caused by the Earth's shadow, and that the Moon does not rotate on it's own axis. He simply refused to believe the truth, even when I showed him. Trying to deal with wilful ignorance makes my brain hurt, but I do enjoy this thread

I work in the US. Some days I help the receptionist with shipping. I had a college intern who wanted to ship a package to Australia "ground" ... I called to tell her that eventually it was going to have to cross water . . .

One on myself -- when I was much younger my dad told me that my car needed to have the tires rotated. I replied, "But they rotate every day." And I meant it. Needless to say, I'm no mechanic.

Student goes to a college bar post last final exam to celebrate (is a senior and of legal drinking age). Bouncer will not accept his driver's license as proof of age because is it "obviously" a fake. Student shows that ID name/picture matches his student ID-no dice. Bouncer says that even it that is true, they don't have to accept said license because it is an out of state license and legally the bar only has to accept licenses from *this state* and states that touch *this state*.

This state is Missouri, Student is from Nebraska. Student goes to college library, checks out atlas, returns to bar and asks for a manager.

Student goes to a college bar post last final exam to celebrate (is a senior and of legal drinking age). Bouncer will not accept his driver's license as proof of age because is it "obviously" a fake. Student shows that ID name/picture matches his student ID-no dice. Bouncer says that even it that is true, they don't have to accept said license because it is an out of state license and legally the bar only has to accept licenses from *this state* and states that touch *this state*.

This state is Missouri, Student is from Nebraska. Student goes to college library, checks out atlas, returns to bar and asks for a manager.

I was refused to entry to a bar in the US because my UK driver's licence is pink, and 'no proper country has pink driving licences' so it must be a fake.

I had an ex who insisted moon phases were caused by the Earth's shadow, and that the Moon does not rotate on it's own axis. He simply refused to believe the truth, even when I showed him. Trying to deal with wilful ignorance makes my brain hurt, but I do enjoy this thread

Well, you were both right. Moon phases are caused by the Earth's shadow and the moon's position in relationship to the sun and the Earth, due to its orbit around the Earth. And, yes, the Moon does rotate around its own axis. Its rotational speed "matches" its translational speed, sothe same side of the moon always faces the Earth and why there is such a thing as the "hidden side of the moon".